Conflicted Heart
by UnicornTalesLol
Summary: A heart that shines deep within the darkness; A Conflicted Heart. Caught between opposing ideals, Tenma doesn't know which side to choose. Constantly dragged deeper into darkness, Tenma decides its best for those around him if he suffers his pain in silence. Tenma sinks within his own despair as he struggles to understand each side as they slowly destroy his entire being.
1. Chapter 1

Tenna ran down the dark corridor, not daring to look back for even a second. Tenma covered his head with his arms, as the walls began to close in on him, becoming dangerously close to crushing him. Hands reached out as if trying to reach the poor boy, as he continued to run at full speed. Tenma didn't know where he was going, nor did he care. All he wanted was to run away from this nightmare. But no matter where he ran, the walls continued to close in on him, hands continued to reach out to him, sneers constantly faced him, and whispers were constantly heard.

"Shut up!" Tenma screamed, swiping at a hand that neared him. Tears burnt at Tenma's eyes, but he refused to allow them to fall. The walls were slowly inching closer and closer to Tenma, almost crushing him completely.

Tenma shut his eyes as the walls finally crushed him, darkness completely enveloping him.

Tenma fell through the darkness until he finally crashed to the floor. Tenma slowly picked himself up, attempting to blink away the haze.

"Tenma," A voice called. Tenma's head spun around, attempting to locate where the voice came from. In front of him was a blurry figure, reaching out their hand. After a moment of hesitation, Tenma took the hand that was offered to him.

The hand pulled Tenma up. Tenma seemingly tripped before he regained his balance once again.

"I didn't know you were so clumsy, Tenma," The voice joked.

"S-sorry..." Tenma muttered, still attempting to blink away the fuzziness in his eyes. From what he could tell, the figure in front of him had white hair and... Purple eyes?

"Is something wrong?" The boy asked, referring to his constant blinking.

"O-oh, I can't really see... You're kinda blurry..." Tenma replied, still confused from the change of events.

"Oh!" The boy clicked his fingers. "Yeah that happens often."

"It does? Wait, what does?" Tenma asked, finally releasing the boy's hand. The boy clicked his fingers and Tenma's eyesight straightened out. Tenma blinked.

"How..." Tenma started.

"Don't worry about it," The boy replied.

"Who are you?" Tenma asked.

"My name's Saru."

"Saru...?" Tenma muttered. He didn't entirely understand why he couldn't comprehend what was happening, but it seemed as if his mind was half _asleep_.

"I've been looking for you for a while now, Tenma," Saru said.

"Huh? Why?"

"Its a little complicated to explain right now. But I promise you, next time we'll have a _lot_ more time to _talk_ ," Saru promised, a dark look passing over his face.

"Where are you going?" Tenma asked, clearly confused as to why Saru suddenly ran out of time. Tenma tilted his head to the side.

"There are some things I need to do. I'll see you soon, Tenma!" Saru waved, before the ground underneath Tenma crumbled and he fell through.

A dark grin spread across Saru's face as he watched Tenma fall. He couldn't wait for his plan to be put in action.

~Conflicted Heart~

"Tenma! Tenma!" A familiar voice shouted, shaking said boy's body rapidly. Tenma's head snapped up and down, his body completely unresponsive.

"You need to wake up! Tenma!" The voice cried, sounding desperate.

"Shinsuke! That's enough; you're doing far more harm than good!" Another familiar voice scolded. Tenma felt his body plummet back to the ground and a sharp pain hissed in his head. Tenma didn't know why, but he felt like his head was splitting apart.

"Shinsuke!" The same voice cried, sounding alarmed at the other voice for suddenly dropping Tenma.

"Ah! T-Tenma! Sorry! I'm sorry!" The voice drawled, sounding close to tears. Tenma could hear noises of fumbling around him but everything seemed so disorientated. Tenma attempted to open his but they felt so heavy; like lead.

He slowly came to the conclusion it would be a lot harder to open his eyes then he originally realised. A groan escaped his mouth and he heard the noises around him instantly stopped.

"Tenma?" A voice muttered, sounding careful almost as if his voice would destroy something. Tenma groaned again, he felt his head was going to rip apart and shatter into thousands of pieces.

"Tenma!" Shinsuke cried, attempting to hug the taller boy. It felt like an eternity, but Tenma felt his eyes open and he stared at the blurry figures in front of him. He could just about make out the worried and scared faces in front of him, but everything was hard to make out. Tenma looked to the side, to see his best friend, Shinsuke hugging him, with what looked like tears streaming down his face.

"Shinsuke..?" Tenma muttered, confused to why the boy was crying and hugging him at the same time. He was acting as if he was dead.

"Shinsuke, give him some space," Shindou instructed, gently taking the small boy away from Tenma. Tenma felt his body slowly lower to the ground again, and he could feel the cool grass soothen his overheating body. He felt like throwing up.

' _Whats wrong with me?_ ' Tenma thought, confused by the situation around him. His eyes slowly turned to his right where he noticed something. It looked like vomit and blood had merged together. Tenma mentally cringed; it wasn't a pretty sight. What scared Tenma more was the fact it was mainly much more blood than it was vomit; the vomit had practically been drowned by the blood.

' _Did I do that?_ ' Tenma vaguely thought.

He looked back to the group surrounding him, and he felt guilt strike him as he realised that were worrying about him for some reason. Fueled by his guilt, Tenma attempted to sit up. Tenma could feel his body cripple under the pressure and he felt like his right arm was going to break from the strain.

Someone placed their hand on Tenma's chest and Tenma's eyes followed the arm until his eyes landed on Tsurugi.

"I doubt it's a good idea to get up yet. Lie down again." Tsurugi stated, gently pushing Tenma back down. Tenma blinked, not entirely understanding but followed his orders anyways. Tenma's eyes slowly began to close again as he lied back down until someone shook him awake again.

"Stay awake, don't fall asleep yet, okay Tenma?" Coach Endou asked, staring at the boy. Tenma vaguely nodded, the entire situation feeling surreal to him. Tenma coughed and squeezed his eyes shut, the pain skyrocketing in his head. He immediately rolled to the side as he felt himself choke on something. Blood splattered across the grass as Tenma continued coughing up the masses of blood that seemed never-ending.

"He's still coughing up blood…? Where's the ambulance?!" Someone shouted. Tsurugi stared at Tenma with worried eyes.

"They're here! Out of the way!" Someone commanded. Tenma could feel someone picking him up.

Tenma couldn't remember what happened, but of what he did, he remember he felt he was floating as he was carried away. He remembered flashing lights and calls of people telling him to hang in there. Everything was hazy and blurry to him, so he did his best to listen to the voices as they seemed to know what was happening.

That was, until he completely blacked out as the pain became something he could no longer handle.


	2. Chapter 2

_Soft._ That was all he could think as his mind bobbed back to consciousness. He was lying on something soft. It was a drastic change, considering the last thing he remembered what the hard ground then the feeling of being weightless as if he was flying. He felt dizzy like the world was spinning around him. His stomach churned, a feeling similar to when you're falling.

He could hear beeping beside him and he concentrated on the sound, trying to figure out what it was while his mind fully awoke. As his mind came into more focus, he could hear more sounds and his dizziness slowly began to fade.

"He... Alright..." He could faintly hear voices around him, but they sounded so far away that he couldn't fully make out what was said as his ears only picked up small pieces every now and then. His body was heavy as if gravity was trying to pull him down to the core of the earth. His eyes were also heavy - to the point where he couldn't even open his eyes.

Why did he feel so weak?

Groaning, Tenma finally pried his eyes open. A sense of nausea and dizziness followed, as his body rejected the simple movement. He could hear voices near him, louder than earlier. He could make out blurry figures in front of him, but he couldn't make sense of them. In particular, a grey figure stood out the most, next to the blue figure.

' _Shindou, Tsurugi?'_ Tenma thought but immediately winced as his head banged in protest. He could vaguely feel something oon his wrist but Tenma's mind was so hazy he couldn't make out whether it was pain or a tickly feeling. ' _I need to move...'_

As if something inside him disagreed with him, pain shot through his body and Tenma let out a whimper before he fell back into the dark abyss once again.

* * *

Shindou leaned over the bed a bit, desperately calling Tenma's name as if that would miraculously wake the boy up. Tenma had usually answered the team's calls so maybe, just maybe… He would hear them this time too…

Shindou felt his heart stop. His eyes slowly looked up to see a sight that terrified him. The heart monitor began beating like crazy. His heart rate was increasing at a dangerous rate. The next few minutes were a blur to him as doctors rushed back into the room and one of the doctors pushed them from the room as they started checking Tenma's body. The last thing Shindou saw before he was shoved out the room was Tenma's heart rate reach 116.

"Hurry! We need to slow his heart down before it causes too much damage!" A doctor shouted. Shindou's eyes widened in fear.

"TENMA!" He screamed. Tsurugi grabbed his wrist, yanking him back.

"Calm down. We need to let them do their job. He'll be fine," Tsurugi reassured him, dragging him away. Tsurugi lead the close to hyperventilating to the chairs located a short distance down the hallway. He sighed and sent a worried glance to the room Tenma was currently in. Unsurely, he looked down to Shindou before he steeled his resolve.

"Tenma will be fine. He's strong, you know that."

"I-I know, but... We don't even know wha-what happened! He collapsed so suddenly..." Shindou whispered, trembling slightly. Tears prickled his eyes. Tsurugi, although it was uncharacteristic of him, placed his hand on Shindou's back, softly patting him. Shindou looked up at him, sniffing.

"Sorry," He started, wiping away his tears. "I'm supposed to be stronger than this..." Tsurugi shook his head, silently denying his words.

"It's fine," Tsurugi mumbled, staring down the corridor to the door where Tenma rested. ' _What's going to happen now?_ ' Tsurugi wondered.

* * *

A week had passed since Tenma's sudden collapse. At first, Raimon had been very shocked but as the hours passed and a new day came, the shock had gradually faded. There was no practice the day after the incident - something the group had been very glad for. The week had slowly passed, taking its time with every single second and minute - taking its toll on each member. No new news had come from the hospital about Tenma's situation, the only information that had been gathered was that he had fell into a sort of coma.

Doctors were frantically searching for the reason as to why Tenma suddenly collapsed. There was nothing physically wrong with the boy, but the doctors had picked up on his brain waves. According to their information, his brain was still very much active and he should be slightly aware of whatever's happening to his body, yet he was not entirely conscious. At first, many doctors had believed it to be Guillain-Barre syndrome, in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system.

However, after more research, doctors concluded that that was not the case. His brain activity was high, as if he had been forced into a constant nightmare which stopped him waking up. Doctors had observed on several cases, Tenma crying or whimpering in his sleep - only confirming this weird phenomenon. Doctors had no idea on how to wake him up or perhaps find a way to stop the nightmares, but no drugs were efficient.

Everyone was at a loss and could only hope to find a solution soon or hope for Tenma to wake up on his own. However, as days passed and a week became a whole month, people were beginning to lose hope. His brain activity had not ceased but it also hadn't increased as his mind remained in the same state. More specialists were brought in to help solve the phenomenon, but each doctor met the same fate - a dead end.

The soccer club was no better, slowly its spark as time continued. The club room was much quieter than everyone used to and adapting to the change had been hard. At first, practice had basically been forced, the silent overwhelming. Eventually practice managed to become more natural and the silence was soon filled up, although it was never the same as when Tenma was there.

They could hope - wish, that Tenma would wake up and return to them soon.

* * *

~Writer's Note~

Okay, I am aware I suck. I haven't updated this in ages and I'm sorry. But I'm trying now. So, let's see where they goes. (In case you haven't already guessed, I have no actual plan in mind.) It's a bit short and I apologize for that, but I just wanted to finally update. ;-;

RIP me.

And Tenma. Definitely him too. Sucks to be you, Tenma.


End file.
